Bourses to see listless trading, opine analysts

Movement is likely to be range-bound

This would be the third straight week that the market is moving in the sideways zone and marketmen say a break-out on either side of the range is possible.

“The market would move in the range of 5,100 to 5,300. Since the market is moving in the same range for the past two weeks, a big move either on the higher or lower side is waiting to happen,” SMC Global vice-president Rajesh Jain said.

Marketmen say as the volatility in the market is quite low at present, activity will remain muted till there is a next big trigger.

“It seems the market will move in a range till the settlement date or January 28. A trigger might come from the RBI policy review slated for January 29,” Bonanza Portfolio assistant vice-president Avinash Gupta said.

Over the past week, the Bombay Stock Exchange gained just over 10 points, but its fourth straight weekly gain. On Friday, the 30-share BSE index ended down 0.17 per cent or 30.57 points at 17,554.30.

Quarterly results

“Market will respond in a big way to the quarterly earnings from companies. Although some hiccups may come if one result is not up to market expectation. It will be mostly stock-specific movement this week,” Gupta noted.

Oil sector giant ONGC, third largest software exporter Wipro, private sector mobile operator Bharti Airtel and banking major ICICI Bank are scheduled to report their December quarter earnings this week. However, analysts expect trading to be cautious ahead of the central bank’s policy review slated for January 29 and the Budget on February 26.

They also opine that investors should hold on to their portfolio for the time being and wait for the next big move from the market.

Further, with ample liquidity in the US market, traders can expect strong foreign fund flow into the domestic equities to continue for some more time.

“As the rupee is appreciating influx of foreign funds will continue. This will keep liquidity in the market intact, which will propel it further,” SMC Global’s Jain said.

In the past week, FIIs have put in over Rs 4,100 crore into the domestic equities taking their total investment to Rs 8,191.70 crore so far this year.